


Brynhildr's Thorns

by Okami01



Series: Leo Week 2020 [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Magic, Mild Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mythology References, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24895489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami01/pseuds/Okami01
Summary: At the age if eleven, Leo decides he wants to be a mage. Then, he decidea if and how he wants to wield Brynhildr.  Prompt for Leo week - Throns
Relationships: Camilla & Elise & Leon | Leo & Marx | Xander
Series: Leo Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801414
Kudos: 10
Collections: Leo Week 2020





	Brynhildr's Thorns

The second Leo could process thoughts, before it was clear if he could use magic, he learned of the weapons passed down in his family. He heard stories of their power all too often. Most of the servants spoke of them with reverence.

When he was very small he went to see the tome known as Brynhildr. He wanted to wield Siegfried. It was a magic blade of darkness. Brynhildr controlled trees. Earth magic. Which seemed boring to Leo even then.

He heard the tails of Brynhildr and Siegfried so often that by the time he was around eleven. Brynhildr known as a great was a female warrior. She became a queen. When a king tricks her into marrying someone that she doesn't like, she goes on a rampage. Leo doesn't think he'd ever be tricked into marriage. He did find it impressive that she sought revenge and achieved it. But she should have been smarter in the first place. The tome is named after her, as she was a mighty warrior that protected Nohr for centuries. Even if she was tricked into marriage. 

Sigfried was a warrior who killed an evil coin hoarding dragon. What made the dragon eviler than anyone else, Leo wasn't sure. His problem was that ultimately, Sigfried was tricked and killed. Some jealous mage murdered him afterward with poisoned steam and attempted to take his power.   
The dragon-slaying was fierce enough. Leo didn't think that the Nohrian warrior died in a particularly impressive way. The power of darkness was still much more compelling than the power of life. 

Perhaps it was a lesson to not make the same mistakes that his ancestors made. The tome and sword forged in times of war to keep the people of Nohr save were extremely important. 

Leo wants to grow stronger. He doesn't want to be a prince that dies in some stupid legend. 

__

For a time, he tried to wield swords as well as his brother could. Leo couldn't beat Xander, which also bothered him for a time.   
Each blow seemed to hurt more than physically.   
Leo was younger and sometimes Xander would say that it was ok that he didn't win. Xander didn't sound patronizing when he said it, or at least, Leo didn't think that he was on purpose. His older brother wasn't doing it on purpose. Yet, Leo watched Xander fight with knights and other people around the castle with a regular sword. His blows were powerful and his technique seemed nearly perfect.

Whenever Leo watched Xander wield Siegfried, it was mesmerizing. Darkness swirled all over the place. It's such a powerful blade, and Xander is already a skilled swordsman. It's a wonder that any opponent he faces doesn't just lay down and die. It's such a strong and magical blade that it can attack from a distance. Xander breaks pots in the training grounds by simply waving his sword in the air. The sword buzzes with magic. Somehow it shines and looks as black as a starless night sky. It's fascinating. He used to tell Xander that he looked really cool and strong. Now the words sound embarrassing in Leo's mind, even if they facts. 

Leo would get bigger and stronger. More skilled with training. Fighting every day. But he knew Xander was going easy on him. With the rate things were going, he'd never really be able to win. With a sword or a lance anyway. 

Leo wanted to make his own path.

He learned soon, that he could control magic quite well.  
Even if he hadn't been adept in it, he wanted to get better. He could be better at magic then Xander. And he could still use a sword. Magic could be just as deadly. If not more so. 

Leo came to that realization huddled on his bed, the wounds from training still stung.   
When the mages tested him, they smiled and told him he could become a powerful mage. They told him that Brynhildr must be calling to him. That it was his birthright.

He wondered if they were just telling him that so that he'd want to wield the plant tome. Why not something cool, like a lance or an axe? He didn't understand the goddess's ways. He knew that the dusk dragons blood flowed through his veins. Perhaps it should be enough. Leo still wasn't satisfied. Having heros blood didn't make you strong on your own. 

But, if Brynhildr was a powerful tome, maybe it was ok that it was an earth tome. A tome of life. Power is power, no matter how ridiculous and strange. 

Despite being a tome of the earth, Brynhildr was purple. It glowed eerily and even more so when Leo walked never him. Leo wasn't much for religion or superstition. Yet, he swore, that sometimes he felt the tome calling to him. The mages and scholars around the castle thought it was. That it was part of a great destiny and prophecy that only Leo could fulfill. It seems sort of ridiculous. At least, that's what Leo told himself instead of admitting he thought it was sort of cool. 

Leo was hardly a poet. Poetry was the one form of literature he wasn't much of a fan of Words may be beautiful if they're arranged a certain way. It didn't matter to Leo. Though there was something poetic about attempting to wield life to cause death. Ironic really. 

Leo still fought his brother. It would be a waste not to spar at all. And mages needn't be physically weak. In fact, it was better if they had a good constitution. Better for casting spells and withstanding attacks. 

So he started to train in magic all the time. Relentlessly. Reading whatever magic books he could find in the library. Casting small spells. Lighting matches and drying off clothes. The larger ones. Cleaving trees. Making lighting strikes. Preforming silence spells. Calling darkness to his side. 

Dispatching any bandits or mages that fought him with ease and a flick of his hand. 

Energy danced at his palms, turning into sparks. It was difficult to control and command but Leo liked the thought of being able to. He wanted precision as well as power. He wasn't able to admit that he loved the feeling of magic surrounding him. Love had nothing to do with it. But it was pleasant and his heart raced at the sensation. He appreciated the need to read and carry tomes with him. They were old and fascinating. 

When you were a swordsman without a sword, or a lancer without a lance, your offensive capabilities decreased dramatically. 

Even though he needed to go channel his magic through the tome for more control and efficiency. Magic was in his blood. It swirled out of him, Sparkling and alight. Demanding and powerful. Demanding a cause. He was happy to give it one. Leo felt as if he was a weapon. He liked it.

He didn't like it when he nearly burnt his robe off trying to use a more powerful fire spell. Or when his hair got messy and large from electricity. When his room grew littered with discarded tome spells and ink.   
Eventually, he grew better at controlling those elements.   
Fire, electricity, wind, darkness, light. They all seemed so much more exciting than the earth. 

Yet, he wanted to claim Brynhildr's magic as his own. 

When he tried to make plants grow, they withered. Leo never considered himself a plant lover. He was starting to think it was a problem. He tried gardening traditionally. His tomatoes didn't cooperate. Nor did the flowers Elise insisted he plant for her. Dirt clung to his fingers. Worms skidded through the mud.   
The ordeal was sort of disgusting. Maybe that's why the plants hated him. Which was very stupid to even think. Plants can't think. They don't feel. Why should they care if Leo waters them and attempts to nurture them instead of a more experienced gardener?

Supposedly, all you needed to do to wield a divine weapon was be part of the bloodline and have knowledge using that sort of weapon. Leo didn't want power just because of his bloodline, he wanted it to respect him. Obviously, magic wasn't a person. Perhaps he was being silly. Unnecessarily difficult. Perhaps the plants were. But it was what he wanted. 

So one day, Leo snuck out of the castle and set off into the woods with Byhinder strapped snuggly to his side. He left a note that he'd be back soon, he was going to the market. His father probably didn't care anyway and it would make him stronger. If Camilla or Xander knew, then they'd coddle him and he'd never get stronger. 

Off Leo went to the forest. The forest's of Nohr were dark and hid the things of nightmares within them. 

But that was just what Leo wanted. What he needed. If he could master Brynhildr then whatever was lurking in the woods, real or pretend and nightmarish.

He'd read about how terrible plant power could be in books. Moss found a way to cover all things. Weeds could survive almost anywhere. Vines had the strength to tie and wrap around things. Cutting off their life. Beautiful fragranced flowers concealed sharp thorns. Some plants were known to have fangs and eat unsuspecting prey. Plants could be ground down and made into posions. Trees could be made into weapons. Sprouting through the dirt and towering over everything. If you collided hard enough with a tree, you were sure to die. 

Some of it seemed like lies. Leo would have to find out. The earth was old and filled with deadly things. 

As was the forest he currently treaded through. It was dark and the darkness only seemed to spread at night. The stars may very above head but they weren't visible. He knew you couldn't see the sun through trees this tall and twisted. Perhaps that was another reason trees were powerful. He was small, still a boy, unfortunately. When he sunk down into the mud, it felt like he'd stay there forever. Leo struggled to dryer land. His boots would be a mess when he returned. Thorns cut at his clothes, tattering them. He cuts himself accidentally on hidden branches. The trees sway in the wind but they showed no sign of tumbling over. It is all impressive. He's quite sure that the forest is trying to kill him. 

It was hard to see things with the purplish fog spreading in the air. Leo continued to walk, until he heard growling and snarling. His breath hitched. His legs wobbled uneasily in the mud. This was what he was looking for. Now was hardly the time to grow frightened. Even though his quickly beating heart or his sweaty palms don't seem to listen. 

His hand trembles as he brushes up against Brynhildr with his fingers. He closes his eyes, not that it isn't already dark. No, he just needs to focus. Breath, channel the magic, be strong. 

He calls the branches and the thorns and trees to his side. He tells them to protect him. To be powerful. To listen to him and to tell him how to wield such ancient unyielding magic. 

Leo opens his eyes and he feels it before he sees it. Magic runs in his veins. Burns and tingles. Trees spout out of the ground, thick and intrusive. He hears the ground rumble, feels it let out what feels like a mighty roar. They grow around the ghastly thing that'd been following him. Leo was never, nor will he ever be anyone's prey. 

Vines twist and grow from the trees, snapping the arm of the beast. Thorns come out from all sides, sharp and lethal. Leo barely hears the moan of the yellowish entombed over the sound of growing trees and vines. 

The monster's golden flesh is snared in the trees. 

Leo exhales and the trees start to wither at some point. They sink down into the ground. Shimmering and disappearing. As if they were never there in the first place. Leaving only a pool of blood and chains in their wake. 

Leo smiles. Not because he's happy about the carnage. Claiming the life of a mindless beast brings him no joy. Brynhildr pulsates at his fingertips. It's power. The vines. The ease in which the magic flows from his fingertips. He's happy he can wield the tome. 

Another monster comes running towards him. Leo does it again, summoning Brynhildr's trees. Sheiks and moans of the beasts that he cuts down fill the forest. Distorted and muffled in the darkness. 

Leo treks through the forest, using Brynhildr's magic to attack. Until he's back out. Sunlight hits his eyes and he debates summoning trees to block it. Brynhildr doesn't speak to him. Not with words. Leo knows its magic should be respected. Not used for frivolous purposes.

He wanders out of the bleak forest into the almost equally terrible Nohrian farmlands. 

Someone is standing there, Xander, he thinks. His arms are crossed. He holds the reins of his horse tightly. Leo gulps. He's too far away to see Xander's eyes knitted together in worry or his angry scowl. Still, Leo feels really excited at the use of his magic. Truly happy for some reason. As if he come tackle armies all on his own. And yet, suddenly his legs buckle and he yawns. All the energy seems to leave him at once. He walls to the ground, his vision blacks out.

\--  
Leo wakes up to his siblings surrounding him at his bedside. Xander stares at him, Camilla smiles. Elise cries. He explains to them that he used Brynhildr. About how happy he was to have used it. How he feels that its power belongs to him in a sense. They all listen.

Xander scowls him and pats his head. Tells him to never be reckless again and to think next time. Leo tells him he was thinking very clearly and Xander counties to Scowl. Camilla smiles and hugs him way too many times. She tells Xander to stop complaining and to let the poor dear rest. For once, Leo isn't annoyed to have her butt into his life. Elise cries into his shirt. He could do without her tears but it does make him happy to hear that she would have missed him so much if he died. 

But Leo is ok. The magic only tired his body out. His heart continues to race as if he's run a race uphill through a bog. His family believes him. They're happy for him, despite everything. 

Leo wants to do it again. But, with the sad and worried looks on his family's faces, he decides to settle for the training grounds. For now at least. 

That night, Leo dreams of entombed chasing him down. He thinks he ought to be scared. But he smiles, stops running and faces them. With a wave of his hand, Brynhildr drives a tree through the monster's heart. Leo never knew how powerful the earth and its sacred tome could be.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Leo Week! Thanks for reading! I love this overachieving little nerd. Low key Norse mythology in there 
> 
> @Tavitay on Twitter


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